Think of the children!: Relationships between nudity-related experiences in childhood, body image, self-esteem and adjustment

Abstract

There are widespread, strongly held beliefs that naturism has a negative impact on children. However, naturist groups advocate for including children and prior research has not clearly investigated how naturism affects children. Two pre-registered, cross-sectional studies (N1 = 411, N2 = 250) investigated how nudity-related experiences in childhood predicted overall adjustment. In Study 1, adults reported their recalled experiences of nudity in childhood as well as their current levels of body appreciation, self-esteem and overall adjustment. In Study 2, mothers reported on their children's current experiences of nudity and the children themselves reported on their current levels of body appreciation, self-esteem and overall adjustment. Results for both studies were similar (though in Study 2, some associations only approached statistical significance): Experiences of naturism were associated with positive, not negative outcomes. These findings suggest that, despite the concerns some people express, naturism does not generally lead to negative outcomes for children.